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Source: Inquirer.netMANILA, Philippines—After turning Manila into the “texting capital of the world,” Pinoys are now making their mark in the Twitter world of short, real-time social media content.

Ronnievinn Pagtakhan, a registered nurse and a teacher at Centro Escolar University (CEU) and Mapua Institute of Technology , was named winner of Twitter’s international Shorty Award in the nurse category at ceremonies at the Times Center in New York on March 28.

A former United States-based nurse, Ronnievinn tied for first place with American Matthew Browning, the founder of YourNurseIsOn.com.

Another twitting Pinoy, sexy actress Angel Locsin landed second place in the Actress category.MANILA, Philippines—After turning Manila into the “texting capital of the world,” Pinoys are now making their mark in the Twitter world of short, real-time social media content.

Ronnievinn Pagtakhan, a registered nurse and a teacher at Centro Escolar University (CEU) and Mapua Institute of Technology , was named winner of Twitter’s international Shorty Award in the nurse category at ceremonies at the Times Center in New York on March 28.

A former United States-based nurse, Ronnievinn tied for first place with American Matthew Browning, the founder of YourNurseIsOn.com.

Another twitting Pinoy, sexy actress Angel Locsin landed second place in the Actress category.

New York-based designer Ann Li, who Filipinos know from her part in ABS-CBN’s Pinoy Big Brother Teen Clash Edition, won first place in the Fashion category.

Twitter invited nominations for dozens of categories. A panel of judges then decided who among the six most popular would be the winner.

“Nagulat ako (I was surprised). Wow it’s a bang for me,” said 25-year-old Ronnievinn in an interview with Inquirer.

Ronnievinn’s winning tweet was: “I’m a nurse, I’m an educator, a son, a friend, and I want to inspire nurses and nursing students.”

“I never expected to win,” said Ronnivinn, still sounding quite overwhelmed—what with the sudden requests for interviews from the big TV networks and other media.

“I feel so proud that I was able to represent the country … When I started I didn’t know it was that serious, that it could be a chance for us Filipinos to be heard, for the world to realize that Filipinos are world class,” he added.

He was invited to go to the United States to personally accept his award, but unfortunately his visa had expired.

But he sent his acceptance speech within the required 140-characters-or-less tweet limit: “ThankYou shorties for this honor.Lets celebrate Nursing around the world.The caring, compassion, love &nurturing. We all deserve this! Mabuhay”

Born and raised in Taguig, Ronnivinn said he was no stranger to the hard life and strove to be self supporting and independent.

He initially wanted to be a doctor but eventually opted to be a nurse. “Graduates of medical degress can’t earn money right away; not even get a part-time job,” he explained.

Another outlook

According to Ronnievinn, he wants to change the way the people perceive nursing nowadays. He aims to remove the impression that nursing is all about going abroad and earning tons of money.

“Hindi yan tungkol sa pera (Nursing isn’t about money), it should be your passion, your advocacy,” he said in a mixture of English and Filipino.

He said he wanted to teach, to help propagate “the true essence of the profession.”

“As a nurse, you’ll feel that it’s truly rewarding to care for people. That’s my outlook, and I just want to share my profession and enlighten people in one way or another, he said, explaining why he went into teaching and is active in social media.

Ronnivinn teaches at the Mapua and CEU and is also a reviewer for nursing board takers. He said he uses these opportunities to not just educate future nurses academically, but to impart to them the importance of nursing.

“The feeling of giving attention and tending to the needs of the sick is a rewarding experience,” he said.

He still plans to go back to the United States to practice nursing, but right now, he’s enjoying his career as a teacher.

“Na enjoy ko...naging passion ko na siya [teaching].” Twitting is part of it as well.

He seems to enjoy almost everything he does. He is also a coauthor of a nursing textbook. “Diba, ang ganda lang pakinggan. Ano ka? Author (Doesn’t that sound great, to say you are an ‘author’).”

He’s very funny and a happy-go-lucky person, and seems to have a knack for making serious discussion seem like a chat session.

Handling discrimination

Filipinos, he said, should never be ashamed of being who they are. He said he never felt discriminated against in the US because of race. But when students ask him to comment about those who have experienced it, he says, “I believe you just have to present yourself as someone respectable, yung hindi ka kabastos bastos (you are serious and not a pushover); present yourself properly and do your work well. Hindi maiwasan yung mga judgmental, di naman sila nagpapatakbo ng buhay mo (There are judgmental people in the world, but they don’t run your life).”

Race shouldn’t be a barrier to any of your dreams. It is your determination, motivation and passion to do what you want that should drive you toward your goals. One should turn barriers into terms of empowerment and not hindrances to success.

He began twitting several years ago and has over a thousand followers. Why should people follow him? In a Twitter interview he said: “Because I’m interesting and speak from my heart.”His favorite tweet: “Keep your dreams alive. Understand that to achieve anything, it requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination and dedication.”

His advice to new twitters: “Tweeting is a privilege, and with this comes responsibility to speak our mind and respect other people’s thoughts.

Back to winning the Twitter award, he says, “We should all be proud, its not just about gender and race anymore, its about being proud of who you are, what you’ve become and what you can share.”